1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to the administration of oral anesthesia into a patient's mouth using a syringe, and, in particular, to lighting of the interior of a patient's mouth during the administration of oral anesthesia.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
It is well-known for dentists to use prior art oral anesthesia injection syringes, such as the prior art syringe shown in FIG. 1, to anesthetize a patient's mouth during dental surgery. A problem is that access to the inside of a patient's mouth is limited by the size of the patient's mouth opening, and it is difficult to adequately illuminate the inside of the patient's mouth so that the dentist can view the injection site during application of the anesthesia. Typically a light mounted on a movable arm is used to illuminate the inside of the patient's mouth, but the dentist's head and hands can impede illumination of the inside of the patient's mouth by the light. Also, when the dentist moves to various injection sites inside the patient's mouth, the light on the movable arm may have to be repositioned between injections so as to provide sufficient illumination inside the patient's mouth.
It is therefore desirable to have a light inside the patient's mouth that directly illuminates the desired injection sites as the oral anesthesia injection syringe is moved from one injection site to another. It is further desirable to provide a “hands free” means of lighting the inside of the patient's mouth that moves with the oral anesthesia injection syringe and that does not require an additional hand to manage the positioning of the lighting of the inside of the patient's mouth.
It is further desirable to provide a single-use disposable oral anesthesia injection syringe that illuminates the inside of a patient's mouth.